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SOME people spend an awful lot of time hunting down UFOs. For Sarah Scoles, author of They Are Already Here, it comes down to human curiosity and a drive to seek answers beyond our reach.

That isn鈥檛 what I expected. My introduction to unidentified flying objects was a pulp magazine called Flying Saucers from Other Worlds, which I read as a kid. Its editor Ray Palmer had recently changed the magazine鈥檚 content from science fiction to 鈥渇actual鈥� news on UFOs, much of which was sane compared with the bizarre conspiracy theories it still included, such as how the saucers came from inside a hollow Earth. I found it funny.

Scoles鈥檚 introduction to UFOs was very different. She read a 2017 about an incident that had happened a few years earlier when the US Department of Defense (DoD) was shown images of a glowing object flying against the wind taken by two Navy fighter pilots. For her, this was 鈥渁ll but a declaration not just that UFOs are extant, but also that they are extraterrestrial鈥�, she writes in the book, and that the DoD knew. As a former Mormon turned science reporter, she wanted to know more.

This incident was reported to what is left of the DoD鈥檚 Advanced Aerospace Threat Identification Program, set up in 2007, closed in 2012, but which the NYT article claims continues in other forms.

Millions of military dollars have been spent on UFO research, some going to , better known for making space station modules.

Another recipient is the To the . It was co-founded by Tom DeLonge, former singer of rock band Blink-182. He expresses his passion for UFO research on the company website, and an 鈥淚nvest now鈥� button solicits a minimum contribution of $350. Harold E. Puthoff, an engineer who some 40 years ago investigated whether spoon-bender Uri Geller had paranormal powers for the CIA, is another co-founder.

The more of this book I read, the weirder it got 鈥� like slipping into an X-Files world of unreality and conspiracies. Not a good feeling.

鈥淯FO believers fast became a community, like a church, a sci-fi club, even a scientific society鈥�

That faded as Scoles turned to the origins of the modern UFO era in 1947, when businessman and pilot Kenneth Arnold reported 鈥渇lying saucers鈥�: nine lights flying in formation over Washington state. The Associated Press agency told the world; federal agencies set up secret UFO hunts; Palmer and Arnold wrote one of the first books on UFOs; the public got interested.

People were suspicious about the official version of the story. With reason. 鈥淭he [US] government did lie鈥� about events at its Roswell site in New Mexico during the cold war, says Scoles. But the goal was to fool the Soviets about US technological superiority, not to hide aliens.

UFO believers fast became a community, like a church, a sci-fi club, even a scientific society. These days that search takes many forms. Some gather to share information, others retreat to the desert to seek cosmic resonances or gateways to other worlds.

Still others discover peace or beauty in remote places, and are drawn into a community of seekers. Judy Messoline, for example, bought 130 hectares in rural Colorado seeking a quiet life, but ended up building the UFO Watchtower, now a centre for tourism 鈥� and, almost, pilgrimage.

The search can also become part of what defines self and identity, says Scoles. Outside the DoD programme, the establishment frowns so strongly on UFOs that it takes real stubbornness to continue. Saucer seekers can end up labelled as contrarians.

Near the end, Scoles describes driving 8 hours to the Sunspot Observatory in New Mexico after the FBI shut it down without explanation. The saucer world thought something was afoot, but Scoles found none of the expected road blocks to stop her.

Eventually, the FBI said it had shut the place as part of a wholly unrelated investigation. She doubts that is the whole story, and she is probably right. In an imperfect world we won鈥檛 get answers to all our questions.

In the end, Scoles shows that the quest for UFOS is about belief in things beyond our comprehension and in us as individuals and as a society. Relegating UFOs to a historical footnote isn鈥檛 happening any time soon.

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